Area 58.6 km² Established 1964 | Phone +1 252-225-2511 | |
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Location Carteret County, North Carolina, United States Nearest city Beaufort, North Carolina Governing body U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Website Cedar Island National Wildlife Refuge Address Cedar Island, NC 28520, USA Management United States Fish and Wildlife Service Similar Swanquarter National Wildlife R, Mackay Island National, Currituck National Wildlife R, Pee Dee National Wildlife R, Theodore Roosevelt State Nat | ||
Cedar Island National Wildlife Refuge, located in Carteret County, North Carolina, is on the end of a peninsula marking the southern end of Pamlico Sound. The refuge lies five miles (8 km) east of the Atlantic Ocean and about 40 miles (64 km) northeast of Beaufort, North Carolina. Established in 1964, the refuge consists of approximately 11,000 acres (45 km2) of irregularly flooded, brackish marsh and 3,480 acres (14.1 km2) of pocosin and woodland habitat. The dominant marsh plants include black needlerush, saltmarsh cordgrass, saltmeadow hay, and saltgrass. The woodland areas are dominated by loblolly, longleaf and pond pine. Live oak is also abundant on some upland sites. The marsh and surrounding waters provide wintering habitat for thousands of ducks and nesting habitat for colonial waterbirds.
Mammalian species that inhabit this refuge are gray squirrel, marsh rabbit, white-tailed deer, raccoon, mink, nutria, muskrat, river otter, fox, and opossum.